The Supreme Court’s decision curbing the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to combat climate change has the Biden administration scrambling to determine how it can still achieve the president’s goals to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade.
While the EPA’s power was reduced, the agency still has tools at its disposal to slow a warming planet. And although the high court determined the EPA could not impose emissions regulations on the entire energy industry, it still has the ability to regulate individual power plants.
In a 6-3 ruling Thursday, the high court dealt a crushing blow to President Biden’s climate change agenda by siding with 19 Republican-led states that the EPA lacked the broad authority under the Clean Air Act to crack down on emissions from the power industry.